Saint of the Day: Bl. Julia Rodzinska, OP

Religious Sister and Martyr (1899-1945)

Her life

+ Stanislawa was born in Nawojowa, Malopolskie, Poland. Her parents died while she was still a child and she grew up in an orphanage run by Dominican sisters. 

+ She loved the sisters and joined their order in 1916, receiving the religious name “Maria Julia.” She professed her final vows in 1924 and spent the remainder of her life teaching and caring for orphaned children. 

+ In 1934, she was named superior of her community’s house in Vilnius, Lithuania. She became known as the “Mother of Orphans” because of her tireless care for the children and was even honored by the local government for her service. 

+ During the Second World War, the government seized control of the sisters’ school and orphanage, dissolving the monastery. Sister Julia and the other Dominicans, now homeless, tried to support themselves by doing odd jobs but after the Nazis invaded Poland (which then included the area that is now Lithuania), the Church was forced to go underground and priests, monks, and religious women and men were imprisoned and executed as enemies of the Third Reich. 

+ Sister Julia continued the work of teaching children as she was able and also worked to keep elderly priests who had no homes or support from starvation. 

+ Arrested by the Gestapo on July 12, 1943, she spent a year in solitary confinement before being deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. There, she was tortured and starved but she remained steadfast. In the end, Sister Julia contracted typhus while nursing Jewish prisoners suffering from the disease. 

+ Blessed Julia Rodzinska died on February 20, 1945, and was beatified in 1999. 

For prayer and reflection

“She counted all as loss in order to know Christ and to have a share in his sufferings, conforming herself to his death.”—Entrance Antiphon from the Common of Martyrs

Prayer

Almighty and merciful God, who brought your Martyr blessed Julia to overcome the torments of her passion, grant that we, who celebrate the day of her triumph, may remain invincible under your protection against the snares of the enemy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Martyrs—For One Martyr)
Saint profiles prepared by Father Silas Henderson, S.D.S.